Enbridge Inc. will begin using an independent verifier, starting with its 2013 data, to help improve its operations in areas such as pipeline integrity, leak detection and public safety.

Enbridge made the announcement Monday as it released its corporate social responsibility report for 2012.

The Calgary-based company’s spill record has been under scrutiny in British Columbia because of its proposed $6.5-billion Northern Gateway pipeline that will carry diluted bitumen from the Alberta oilsands to Kitimat for export overseas.

The key concern of opponents of Northern Gateway is the risk of a spill from the pipeline or from tankers along the northwest B.C. coast.

Enbridge has a risk management plan aimed at pre-empting incidents and improving pipeline reliability. Goals include zero significant releases, defined as more than 100 barrels of oil or where cleanup costs are $1 million or more, and minimum environmental impacts when a spill occurs. The independent verifier is meant to ensure Enbridge’s risk management plan is leading to improved performance and provides transparency.

The independent verification results will be reported publicly.

“We are being challenged to achieve unprecedented levels of performance in safety and environmental protection while at the same time realizing the social and economic benefits created by new energy opportunities,” Enbridge president and CEO Al Monaco said in a news release.

“We are responding in ways that are fundamentally changing the way we do business,” Monaco said.

The independent verifier has not been named.

The company’s latest spill figures, released in the social responsibility report, show 10,224 barrels of oil were spilled in 2012 compared to 2,366 barrels in 2011.

However, Enbridge spokesman Glen Whelan noted in an email that only 16 per cent of spills in 2012 occurred on Enbridge pipeline rights of way or were outside of the facility boundary.

Enbridge’s spill average (0.005 spills per billion barrel-miles) is 75 per cent lower than the industry average, Whelan said.

Of the 85 spills in 2012, 68 were less than 10 barrels.

There were two significant incidents in 2012, up from one in 2011:

• On June 18, about 1,400 barrels of oil leaked at a pump station on Enbridge’s Athabasca Pipeline near the town of Elk Point, Alta., about 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. The spill was largely contained to the pump station site, with about 188 barrels entering an adjacent landowner’s field.

Enbridge removed contaminated soil, and is monitoring groundwater and surface water at the spill site.

• On July 27, about 1,200 barrels of oil leaked from the Lakehead pipeline near Grand Marsh, Wis. The oil entered a field, and the company is monitoring nearby drinking wells as a precaution.

There was also a significant spill, of about 1,300 barrels, on June 22, 2013 near Cheecham, Alta.

The Northern Gateway project, which recently received approval from a federal review panel, is meant to open up new markets in Asia for bitumen from the Alberta oilsands. Almost all Canadian oil is solely reliant on the U.S. market.

Enbridge has already promised beefed-up spill-prevention safety measures on the Northern Gateway pipeline costing an additional $500 million, which includes thicker pipe at river crossings and round-the-clock staffing at pump stations. The project has been strongly opposed by First Nations, environmental groups and some northern municipalities in B.C.

Critics point to a major 2010 spill of about 20,000 barrels on an Enbridge pipeline in Michigan where some of the oil entered the Kalamazoo River. That spill has cost the company nearly $1 billion in cleanup and remediation.

ForestEthics Advocacy campaign director Ben West said the fact the company is issuing social responsibility reports shows they understand they need people’s permission for projects to move ahead, not just permits.

However, he said the public should not judge company’s on their own reports but on the judgment of regulators like those who analyzed the Michigan spill in 2010.

West noted that U.S. regulators likened Enbridge’s actions during the spill to that of Keystone Kops. “We definitely have a lot of people who feel like the company is trying to hoodwink them,” he said.

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